Pretty's Hierarchy of Moving Needs

First and foremost, my thanks and gratitude go to that Yummy Mummy in L.A., One Fabulous Mom, for honoring the Pretty on her lovely blog today. Please go forth & investigate her splendiferousness immediately. Thank you for your cooperation.

***************************************************************************************

But back to talking about myself . . . this being the new year and time for odious resolutions and reflection blah blah, it struck me that I'm coming up on one year of life in a new city. Having done this a couple of times in as many years, it seemed to me there was a bit of a pattern to this settling in to a new town business. Cribbing furiously from that Maslow guy and his hierarchy of needs, which I ever-so-vaguely recall from my college Psych course before I discovered that there was actual science involved in psych & dropped the class, my inner Type A Minus took command of my keyboard and came up with the following sequence of priorities I've somehow come to rely on in my moves. Starting with the more "primitive" needs at #1, I bring you the Pretty Hierarchy of Moving Needs:

1) Home / Job
2) Grocery Store/ Dry Cleaner (the latter being the bitchiest of them all to find, no?)
3) Reasonable facsimile of Southern California culinary staples: a decent late-night Mexican food source/ In-n-Out burger
4) Keepers of the Pretty - doctors, hair salon (also onerous), etc.
5) Finding the fun stuff / meeting people - decent bookstore, liquor source, cupcake source, theater, shops
6) Finding the Civic Duty stuff / meeting people - Junior League membership, etc.

Hmm . . . come to think, the bar & the bookstore probably come hand in hand with basic grocery store needs . . . aside from that, I do believe that in this current Austin abode, I've made it almost all the way through this odious list business and am only left at #5-6. Not so bad for one year, I'm surprised to find ((she says as she smugly in a self-congratlatory glow)).

This look about right to you? What are the first things you seek out in a new town?

Important Weekend Announcement

As our glorious weekend in the hinterlands of southern California draws to a close, we must announce our immediate, semi-permanent retirement from the following:

Smarmy, self-reverent musical theater

Highly recommended if you are eager to upset yourself or loved ones. However, it must be said that (1) we had a hugely enjoyable time just going to the theater, not to mention making fun of it and (2) the music itself is pretty good, if you can ignore absolutely everything else about it.

Eating

"The Only Burger I Will Ever Truly Love"

(credit: Palate Revolution)

Shopping

(credit: Saks)

Also credit to Retail Ninja SLynnRo, who kindly brought to our attention an incredible deep discount site featuring, amongst other deals, this Tibi dress we've been Jedi-mind-trick willing to go on sale. If you whisper sweet nothings in the comments, we might even tell you the site - and/or stop talking about ourselves in the royal "we", if you're exceptionally nice.

(credit: Saks)

Also credit to the BF Committee, without whom we may have overlooked this MARC gem entirely.

**Important Exception**

(credit: Citysearch)

We will still accept any and all kind invitations to this club and scheme to gain membership by whatever means possible. Work hard, Anonymous Husband!

Due to our semi-retirement, which is effective immediately, we hereby announce that we're just going to have to find something to talk about for the time being aside from our favorite subjects - eating, shopping, and smarmy, self-reverent musical theater. Just as soon as we determine what on Earth that might be, we'll be back in touch.

Double-Double Weekend

We hereby announce our early blogging departure this week as Pretty HQ temporarily relocates to our hometown, land of the preternaturally blonde and tan. We are of course looking forward to visiting friends, the beach, and temperatures under 100 degrees, not necessarily in that order, but we also confess intention to pursue a few other areas of interest:

Eating

(credit: In n' Out)

Behold the only fast-food burger I will ever truly love. I am an unabashed homer about this and will entertain absolutely no objections - I'm looking at you, Whataburger - in regards to same.

(credit: Palate Revolution)
It's a fish taco, darlings. Not a feature in most Tex-Mex restaurants, unfortch, so I suggest you hurry out to the lower Left Coast and try one sometime.

You may be picking up on a food theme here, and you would be right. If I weren't so incredibly vain - er, concerned about Anonymous Husband's happiness, that is - I'd drown myself in chocolate (preferably from here) post haste. Happily, the AH shares my love of good food, so I have a companion doing hateful things like exercise between meals. Obvs. these rules do not apply while one is on vacation, when we - ahem, I, - in addition to gorging myself, prefer to be doing things like . . .

Shopping (duh)

. . . Emergency Handbag Shopping. Alarmingly, we've just learned that Junior League starts up much sooner than expected. So in (not-at-all dissimilar) manner of shy high school freshman praying her wardrobe will work social magic, I'm off to my hometown mall to replace my battle worn everyday tote, perhaps with one of the following:

(credit: Shopbop.com)

(credit: Saks)

Blatantly Attempting to Gain Reader Love

Calling all Banana Republicans, here's a discount code: 15% off $150 or more, enter PQVQ8K2CP8G1 at online checkout. The fall collection is largely adorable, so if I didn't have the EHS shopping to do, I'd be using this myself.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend . . .